by Kat Apf

Created on: November 18, 2011

If you've trying to learn to pray the Divine Office, also called the Liturgy of the Hours, and have given up hope of ever learning this complicated prayer series, Divine Office for Dodos, by Madeline Pecora Nugent, is the book for you.

The Divine Office is a complicated daily prayer sequence that many people, Catholics and non-Catholics, pray.  It's not easy in any way and there are dozens of books to help you but most of them are as complicated as the prayers themselves. 

While this book is a great resource and it's helpful, know going in that the style is a bit chatty and sometimes, downright goofy, but the lessons in this book really are good for those who have had trouble learning the sequence of the prayers elsewhere. 

An example of her interesting style comes from the very first page of the book.   The first few sentences are, " Hi! Let us begin with a secret. You are not a dodo! Not only do you lack a hooked beak and fluffy feathers, but you are even fairly smart."  Don't let her style put you off.  If you can cut through this kind of cutesy writing, you'll probably learn to pray the Divine Office.

The book begins with deciding which version of the breviary to get and I wished I had seen it before I bought my copy.  She explains in her casual style which book you might need and the advice is helpful.

Nugent then moves on to having the reader make bookmarks and adding ribbons to a small piece of cardboard, so you can keep track of your days and prayers.  While this worked for me, it doesn't always work for everyone.  Another off putting prospect for some but you don't have to make the bookmarks and the ribbons.  My breviary came with ribbons, although not all the ribbons she mentions and I didn't make the ribbons as she suggested. I was still able to go ahead with the lessons.

The layout of the lessons, with questions to consider before moving on, were very helpful.  The questions were, for the most part, ones I was able to answer as I went through the lessons but a few times, I realized, via these questions that I didn't quite get it and was able to go back.

Overall, out of all the books I bought to learn to pray the Divine Office, this was the best.  The style was a bit off putting and just sort of goofy, yet I would still recommend this book.  It was only nine dollars and it did what it was supposed to.  I am not able to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, at a very basic level.  And that's exactly why I bought this book.  With time, I'm sure I'll become better at figuring out the sequence and when I'm truly stuck, I go to Divineoffice.org to get back on track.

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